Scene of a house fire at 1396 Claymor in the west end of Ottawa where two people died. December 14,2013. Errol McGihon/Ottawa Sun/QMI Agency

QMI Agency

Scene of a house fire at 1396 Claymor in the west end of Ottawa where two people died. December 14,2013. Errol McGihon/Ottawa Sun/QMI Agency

QMI Agency

Scene of a house fire at 1396 Claymor in the west end of Ottawa where two people died. December 14,2013. Errol McGihon/Ottawa Sun/QMI Agency

QMI Agency

Scene of a house fire at 1396 Claymor in the west end of Ottawa where two people died. December 14,2013. Errol McGihon/Ottawa Sun/QMI Agency

QMI Agency

Scene of a house fire at 1396 Claymor in the west end of Ottawa where two people died. December 14,2013. Errol McGihon/Ottawa Sun/QMI Agency

QMI Agency

Scene of a house fire at 1396 Claymor in the west end of Ottawa where two people died. December 14,2013. Errol McGihon/Ottawa Sun/QMI Agency

QMI Agency

Scene of a house fire at 1396 Claymor in the west end of Ottawa where two people died. December 14,2013. Errol McGihon/Ottawa Sun/QMI Agency

QMI Agency

Jasmine Gregory, 21, died in a house fire on Claymor Street in Ottawa on Saturday, Dec. 14, 2013. She was remembered at a funeral service held in Ottawa on Saturday, Dec. 21, 2013. Submitted photo/Facebook photo
OTTAWA SUN/QMI AGENCY

OTTAWA � Dec 16, 2013 ��Investigators from them office of the Ontario Fire Marsha, as well as an engineer, remained at the scene of a fatal fire on Claymor Ave. on Monday. The fire broke out early Saturday morning, killing two women. (Chris Hofley/Ottawa Sun)

QMI

OTTAWA � Dec 16, 2013 ��A small memorial sits at the base of a tree near the house where two women died in a fire on Saturday morning. No cause has been determined. (Chris Hofley/Ottawa Sun)

QMI

OTTAWA � Dec 16, 2013 ��A small memorial sits at the base of a tree near the house where two women died in a fire on Saturday morning. No cause has been determined. (Chris Hofley/Ottawa Sun)

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Fire ripped through a west-end home early Saturday morning, killing two young women and leaving several others stranded outside in the bitter cold.

Frantic screams from those who escaped the blaze filled the otherwise quiet neighbourhood.

Those screams woke up Wayne Hughes just before 3 a.m.

He was shocked when he looked out the window and saw flames shooting out of 1396 Claymor Ave., just three homes down the street from his own.

The two victims, both women, were 21 and 23 years old.

“The flames were wild,” said Hughes, adding that he could see them shooting across his own backyard.

When Hughes got to his front door, “two girls were standing on the grass, where the grass would be (under the snow), in no clothes, no shoes.”

That was the case for many residents of the multi-unit home, said paramedics. They didn’t have time to get dressed or put on shoes, and paramedics were seen wrapping victims in their own jackets and carrying them across the snow to waiting ambulances.

The temperature when the fire started was about -30C. Three teenagers, aged 16, 17 and 18, were treated for hypothermia and smoke inhalation and taken to hospital, as was a 20-year-old man. A pregnant 21-year-old suffered severe smoke inhalation and hypothermia and was also transported to hospital.

In the adjoining unit, a 36-year-old man, 34-year-old woman and two-year-old girl were treated for minor hypothermia.

It was so cold as firefighters worked to control the blaze that their hoses were frozen solid by the time they went to put them away.

Frozen water from the hoses had to be dumped into a pickup truck.

Neighbour Rob O’Neil also witnessed the tragedy and the resulting commotion.

“I woke up to the sirens and flames were flying out the back of the house and the front of the house,” said neighbour O’Neil.

“(The residents) all came running out. They were standing there in bare feet.”

None of the neighbours the Sun spoke to at the scene knew the students living in the house but had seen several of them coming and going regularly.

“I see them when I go to work, I see a couple girls going out and getting in their cars,” said Dennis Dumoulin. .

Neighbours also expressed concern that at least one fire hydrant — the one closest to the fire – didn’t work when firefighters connected a hose to it. They had to run the hose to a hydrant further down the street.

Police, as well as the fire marshall — who arrived at the scene Saturday afternoon — are investigating.

At least 5 people rescued, including pregnant woman from south Ottawa home

Two young women are dead after an early morning fire on Claymor Ave. on Saturday..

Paramedics and firefighters responded to the 1300 block of the street at 2:50 a.m. in response to the two-alarm blaze.

The women killed in the fire are 21 and 23.

Several other people in the unit at the time of the fire – aged 16-21 -- were treated for smoke inhalation and hypothermia and taken to hospital after being forced out of the burning building in bare feet and with minimal clothing.